


Negative Effects of Habits

by pennysparrow



Category: DCU (Comics), Green Arrow (Comics), Hellblazer
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Gotham City - Freeform, Magic, Mild Language, Smoking, do not copy to another site, liberal sass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:42:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26762290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennysparrow/pseuds/pennysparrow
Summary: There were weirder places to wake up than Gotham City – believe it or not – though that really only applies if you also fell asleep in Gotham City. Which Mia had not.Mia was somehow teleported in the middle of the night but at least there's a warlock who seems to be in the same boat and willing to help.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	Negative Effects of Habits

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying to do Halloweenish fics every day in October and John's a bullshit wizard so that makes this Halloweenish. You can send me prompts on my tumblr at [thelittleredheadedmusician](https://thelittleredheadedmusician.tumblr.com/) or just pop by to say hi!
> 
> Mentions of alt-right/neo-nazis but they get their comeuppance. Also John chain smokes throughout the whole thing, as he does.

There were weirder places to wake up than Gotham City – believe it or not – though that really only applies if you also fell asleep in Gotham City. Which Mia had not.

This wasn’t the safehouse that Ollie kept. Or the one Roy kept. Or Dinah’s apartment. Or even the fancy loft the Queens publicly owned. Mia was fairly sure this was a warehouse. An abandoned one by the dust that tickled her nose.

She pushed herself up from the wooden pallet she was laying on, thankfully it seemed that her pajamas had made the trip with her. Mia might have to start sleeping with her boots on after this because she wasn’t eager to introduce the bottom of her feet to the broken glass and rusty nails that were bound to litter the dim space. At least she had her tetanus shot up to date. Though she was a little annoyed Ollie’s paranoia was rubbing off on her.

And how did Mia know it was Gotham that she woke up in? Well the man’s voice that floated out of the darkness was cursing up a storm about the city. So, Mia had a pretty good guess that was where she was.

“Hello?” Mia called out cautiously. She curled her fingers into fists and shifted her weight the way Dinah and Ted had taught her. No bow didn’t mean she was helpless, Mia could pack a punch and she was proud of it.

The cursing quieted. “Someone there?” the voice called back, a low grumble with an accent. British, not anything crisp and high class but beyond that Mia couldn’t place it.

“Yeah! I’m here! Not that I actually know where _here_ is.”

A chuckle sounded from the darkness. “Ok, love. Just hang on, I’m on my way. D’you think you could give us a shout? Lighter only does so much.”

“Normally when I wake up in places like this, I have a flashlight or a flare or at the very least my phone. I’m not really a fan of this gloom,” Mia offered.

A laugh came again, closer this time. “Don’t tell me, you’re a cape?”

Mia weighed her options, no harm telling him if she didn’t say _which_ cape she wore. Right? Even though there was a touch of venom in the voice now. “Well right now I’m more of a plaid pajama than anything.”

“Clever,” he said, a light materializing and the man coming with it. He looked vaguely familiar, a glint of blonde hair, loose tie, and sweeping trench coat revealing itself in the flame. His eyes narrowed as he caught sight of Mia with her flannel pants, oversized t-shirt, and bare feet standing on the wood. “You’re not the chipper Batgirl, are you?”

“Nope. Definitely not,” Mia tried to assure him.

“You sure?” An eyebrow lifted as his eyes narrowed.

Mia frowned. “I’m positive. I went to sleep in Star last night. Where I live.”

“It’s just the hair and the locale,” he waved his free hand vaguely.

“Maybe I’m Supergirl. Or Miss Martian,” Mia said defensively, “she shapeshifts. Stargirl’s another blonde. And how do you know Batgirl doesn’t wear a wig?”

He laughed and tried to wave her off, “Ok, ok, love. Point taken. So, who are you? If it’s not one of the above.”

It was Mia’s turn to level him with a skeptical look, she didn’t have the best record with keeping her secret identity in check but that didn’t mean she had to go blurting it out to strange men just because they had a light and she didn’t. “You first,” Mia countered quickly.

His lips twisted into a smirk. Nodding, he reached into his coat and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, tugging one from the box with his mouth and lifting the lighter to it. Once the pack was put away and he’d pulled a long drag he smirked around it again. Taking the cigarette between two fingers he exhaled a stream of smoke and the words, “John Constantine, at your service.”

Mia pulled her own lip between her teeth; Ollie had warned her about this man. So had Dinah and Roy. He was a powerful magic user who only helped if it suited him. He saved the world because he was a current resident of it, no other reason. More importantly though, he left a well recorded trail of death and destruction in his wake. Granted, Mia had no idea how she got here, in her pjs no less, so maybe some magical assistance wouldn’t be so bad.

“Speedy. As in the kid with the bow, not a runner.”

John – Constantine? The first felt too casual, the latter too formal for someone who’d seen her in her bleach stained pajama top – chuckled at that again. “I met your mentor once,” he gestured with his cigarette, the smoke curling up into the rafters, “he’s a whole lot more tolerable than the rest of the super friends. So, we’re both in the same boat here?”

“What do you mean?” Mia rubbed at her bare arms; she was starting to get chilly standing here.

“Figure of speech, love,” he winked.

Mia rolled her eyes, “I know that. And you knew what I meant.”

He shrugged and kept smoking, making her wrinkle her nose at the smell. “Well, you said you woke up here, right? I didn’t get to Gotham the conventional way myself.”

“Great,” Mia sighed. “Magic.”

“Now _that_ is the type of response I wish more people had.” John dropped the butt of his cigarette, grounding it out beneath his heel. “C’mere, I’ll give ya a lift.”

She raised an eyebrow as he held out his arms, flicking the lighter closed and plunging them into the half-light of morning that made its way through the grimy windows.

“I’ll carry you out so you don’t cut your feet,” he sighed. “Mage’s honor. I’ve never seen the point of scouts.” She could still see the slash of his smirk in the dark.

She hadn’t wanted to step off the pallet in the first place but Mia felt more than a little awkward just letting him carry her. “I’m heavier than I look,” she warned. And it was true, since moving in with Ollie she’d put on weight and more than that, muscle.

“I can handle it, love,” something about his smile changed, seemed kinder. Mia nodded and John stepped closer. She slung an arm around his shoulders and held on as he slipped his arms under her knees and around her back and lifted her up.

Mia was hit with the scent of stale smoke and sweat and a wave of memories of her old life. She stiffened involuntarily. Freezing at the images and sounds that flashed through her mind at the smell.

John must have noticed because he stopped walking. “You alright?” He sounded genuine in his concern; Mia knew what the opposite sounded like.

“Yeah, fine, thanks.” Mia didn’t believe herself and she knew that John certainly didn’t but he kept walking and didn’t bring it up.

There was a door, heavy metal with rust peeling the paint off in flakes. John spun slightly so he could kick at it before shouldering it open. Mia squinted at the sun managing to break through the clouds. The parking lot around the warehouse was cracked macadam but relatively clean of debris and gravel. John set her down on a patch and Mia muttered her thanks, shocked a bit by the cold ground against the bottom of her feet.

Rummaging in his coat, John pulled the lighter and cigarettes out again. He offered her the pack this time and Mia leveled a flat look. “You really think you ought to be giving cigarettes to teenagers?”

His smile flashed behind the cupped hands of his lighter. “Just trying to be polite. So, who did you piss off?”

“Recently?” Mia returned the smirk as she thought about patrol the past couple nights. “Some gang bangers, a couple jackass pimps, handful of corrupt cops, and some neo-nazis just for good measure. Though there was an overlap between them and the cops.”

John laughed, “A girl after me own heart.”

“Hmm, sorry I swore off older men. And smokers.”

He motioned at her with his cigarette, “Now if the Justice League talked like that I might be more inclined to help them.”

“You obviously don’t hang around with enough sidekicks,” Mia raised her brows. The sass might be a natural trait, but it was honed by a tried and true tradition that she upheld.

“Actively try to avoid it. Do my best work alone, ta.”

“That why we’re still standing around instead of figuring out how we got here in the first place?” Mia crossed her arms and tilted her head in the way that made even calm and collected Conner shoot her an exasperated look.

John’s smile just slipped a little and he shook his cigarette in her direction. He half grumbled before turning away and taking another drag. “Well, I have a running list of those out to get me and believe it or not neo-nazis are on it.”

Mia lifted a brow. She wasn’t exactly surprised but…

“I’ve been a part of the punk scene since before you were born, love. Skinheads were never welcome.”

She matched his smirk. “Point taken. So how do a bunch of alt-right assholes manage to get us to an abandoned warehouse in Gotham. Why? And how’d you know it was Gotham?”

“Places give off energies and if you know what to look for you can sense it,” John said around the end of his cigarette, lighting another off of it.

“Like, auras?” Mia paid attention to Conner’s hippie friends. Even if she thought their healing crystals were a load of bull.

“Like auras,” John agreed with a grin. “Gotham’s is _very_ distinct and _very_ overpowering. S’a bit like waking up with a hangover and a bloody skunk shoved under your nose.”

“Delightful,” Mia said dryly.

“Ennit? Why? They’re probably just pissed. Petty revenge from some arseholes who think a parlor trick makes them bloody Merlin. Fact we haven’t seen anyone says this was more to inconvenience us than anything, I’d say. The how…” John trailed off and flicked the butt of his second cigarette onto the ground. He mumbled what Mia could only categorize as hocus pocus as he did so, the smoke from the butt swirling up and taking shape between his hands. John grew silent as he studied the shapes. Mia waited for him to shed some more light on the situation, or maybe conjure her up some shoes and a sweatshirt.

Mia shivered as a breeze tickled over her arms and lifted the loose hairs framing her face. It dissipated the smoke John was looking at too. “So?” she prompted.

John blinked, like he was surprised to see her still standing there. He shrugged off the trench coat and passed it to her with a half-smile. Mia ignored the stale scent and slipped it on gratefully.

“Well, it’s a pretty rudimentary teleportation spell. Sympathetic magic, you take something of the person and say a few words then put it where you want them to end up. Say a few words again and do a ritual and there you have it. Those blokes get some of your hair when you fought them? Maybe even blood?”

Mia shook her head, making the messy bun on top wobble. “One of the first rules of archery, you don’t want anything getting caught on the string so I keep it tied back. And I’m a ranged fighter, I didn’t get close enough for them to land a hit.”

John hummed. “Me it’s easy, leave a bit of a trail,” he nodded to the cigarette butts on the ground, “bit of salvia’s all it takes.”

Thinking back to the other night, Mia tried to remember the exact details of the fight but she took them out from perched on a fire escape. They were trying to harass a group of kids coming out of one of the city’s gay bars and with a few shots her arrows had them pinned to the wall of the building. She’d left a note for the cops to find.

“Crap.” Mia pressed her palms into her eyes. “Bubblegum.”

“What’s that, love?”

“I might have a bubblegum habit, but at least I’ll only be getting a cavity and not cancer,” she added when John’s eyes lit up, “I may have used some to stick a note saying ‘Punch me! I’m a nazi!’ to the one guy’s forehead.”

That had John laughing again. “Well, points for style, love.”

“So what now?” Mia sighed.

John rolled his sleeves down, even laughing magicians weren’t immune to the cold it would seem. “Well, I happen to know where the Gotham door for the Oblivion Bar is located, that should get me back to London. You, on the other hand.”

“I can get to a couple different safe houses, but I need shoes.”

“Ah,” John’s smile stretched wide. “That I can help with. Can’t make something out of nothing, magic doesn’t actually work like that, but if you give me my coat, I should have the supplies to do a little teleportation spell of me own.”

Mia slipped it off again and handed the worn trench coat back to him, wrapping her arms around herself immediately missing the warmth. “You’re not going to just drop me in a safe house?”

“No,” John chuckled. “I can bring your costume to you though.”

She raised a skeptical brow as John pulled out some chalk and began drawing markings on the parking lot between them. Well, if it didn’t work than she’d just demand John give her a lift, she’d already stolen his wallet from the trench coat’s inside pocket.

“Alright then, love. Just picture your costume in its display case or wherever you keep it,” he instructed as he held his palms up over the markings.

“Try closet,” Mia muttered but closed her eyes and imagined her Speedy gear. The sturdy red pants and Under Armor like top. The red breastplate/vest with its yellow arrow and her yellow gloves and arm guard. The yellow shin guards and knee and elbow pads, utility belt and hood. Red mask and bow and fletchings on the arrows. Yellow quiver and sturdy yellow boots. Most importantly those sturdy yellow boots.

As Mia saw her uniform in her mind’s eye John began chanting. There was a sudden flare of heat and then an even colder wind whipping it away. She peeked an eye open. Sure enough, her costume sat neatly folded on the chalk markings. Bow and fully stocked quiver next to it. Most importantly, her boots on top.

She snatched for them and John shrugged his coat off again. “Here, love, should be able to use this to change.”

“Thanks,” Mia said, draping it over her shoulders. She shoved her feet in the boots without tying them, taking everything over to change against the warehouse wall. “Do you mind holding it up? No peeking.”

“No peeking,” John promised, lifting his coat from her shoulders and stretching it out before him. He even closed his eyes _and_ turned his head away. Mia was impressed.

In no time she’d slipped out of her pajamas and into her Speedy costume. Most importantly she had her boots on and tied tight. “Ok,” Mia said to John as she shoved her pjs into her quiver. “Guess this is where we part. I can walk to a safehouse from here and call Black Canary, she’s got friends in Gotham who can help me out from there.”

John nodded, fixing the collar of his coat before slipping his hands in his pockets. “Well Speedy, I’d say it’s a pleasure but…”

Mia laughed. “Agreed. Let’s never meet like this again, though I appreciate all your help.”

“Anytime, love. Anytime.” He pulled his hand out of his pocket, holding out a slightly bent and discolored business card.

Mia accepted it and raised her eyebrow. “‘John Constantine: Exorcist, Demonologist, and Master of the Dark Arts.’ Really?”

He pulled a face and half snapped his fingers, “Been meaning to get those reprinted. Point is, you seem to piss off the right kind of people so if you run into something a little above your paygrade in the future feel free to give me a ring.”

She slipped it into a pocket on her belt. “You have a phone?”

“It’s a recent acquisition.”

“Right. Oh,” Mia remembered suddenly, digging in her quiver for his wallet and tossing it to him. “You might want that back. Uh, it was insurance in case you wanted to disappear on me. Your reputation proceeds you.”

John caught it and laughed, shaking the wallet at her with a smile before he slid it back into his coat. “You. I like you.”

Mia flashed him one last smirk as she headed towards the city, “Told you Constantine, sidekicks are where the fun’s at!”

Laughing, John lit yet another cigarette and raised it to her in salute. “Cheers, love. I’ll have to remember that.”

A sudden thought had Mia spinning around. “John,” she called but he was still walking the other direction. “Constantine!” she yelled again.

He turned and squinted towards her, “Yeah, love?”

“You wouldn’t happen to be interested in catching the guys who did this?”

John smiled, slow and wide. “Actually, I really would.”

Mia grinned back. “C’mon then, let's play karma. I'm feeling bitchy.”

**Author's Note:**

> Mia's costume is my own redesign because that cape is Not Practical for an archer lbr. If I could draw it I would but I can't so I shan't. Think Judy Hopps from Zootopia or Alex from Supergirl? Also, she gets a utility belt cause she needs to be able to keep her phone somewhere and you can't rely on trick arrows for everything so there's a little first aide kit, flashlight, hair ties, spare comms, other such things.


End file.
